
Three bodies lie at the bottom of a swimming pool in a gated country estate near Buenos Aires. It`s Thursday night at the magnificent Scaglia house. Behind the locked gates, shielded from the crime, poverty & filth of the people on the streets, the Scaglias & their friends hide lives of infidelity, alcoholism, & abusive marriage. Claudia Pineiro`s novel eerily foreshadowed a criminal case that generated a scandal in the Argentine media. But this is more than a story about crime. The suspense is a by-product of Pineiro`s hand at crafting a psychological portrait of a professional class that lives beyond its means & leads secret lives of deadly stress & despair. It takes place during the post 9/11 economic melt-down in Argentina but it`s a universal story that will resonate among credit-crunched readers of today.